Do we like Mitch McConnell?
Our score: 4 out of 10. Real harm on LGBTQ+ legislation and the courts, set against some backbone in voting down Trump's most contested Cabinet picks.
Willard Mitchell McConnell has been around since the Reagan years. He started as a county judge-executive in Jefferson County, Kentucky, was elected to the Senate in 1984, and went on to lead the Senate Republicans from 2007 until 2025, the longest run of any Senate party leader. His final term ends in January 2027, so this is the last lap.
The thing he built is the courts. After Justice Scalia died in 2016, he led the move to keep the seat open for months rather than consider Obama's pick, Merrick Garland. Trump then appointed 234 federal judges in his first term, and McConnell has said the way to get lasting impact is to put the right people on the courts. Fans call it smart hardball, critics call it stealing a seat, and where you land depends on how you read the Senate's powers.
His most interesting moment came after 6 January 2021. He voted not guilty at Trump's second impeachment trial, saying a former president couldn't be tried by the Senate. In the same speech he said Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the event of that day”. That's a rare mix of letting someone off the hook while naming the hook.
Now the harm check. He voted against the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022, which passed the Senate 61-36 with a dozen Republicans on side, and the coverage we read gives no reason from him. The Advocate says he also kept the Equality Act from getting a Senate vote and opposed repealing don't ask, don't tell, and calls his record “egregiously anti-LGBTQ+”. Those are acts, not just words, and they sit heavily on the page's own question.
The recent bit: he came back to the floor in September 2026 to vote for cloture on Byrne for the Southern District of Ohio, which passed by a single vote. The Advocate points to Byrne's March 2026 opinion about parents not having to accept a child's trans identity or pronouns. McConnell's reasons for his vote weren't in what we read, so judge it as a vote, not a speech.
Here's where he surprises people. In February 2025 he voted against Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, saying of Kennedy he had “a record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories” and eroded trust in public health. Trump called him “bitter” in reply. He also said he expected to back most of what the administration does, so this was selective, not a crusade.